Washington, D.C. -— U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington), the only North Carolina-member of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued the following statement in response to the President’s selection of North Carolina’s Erskine Bowles to lead a national panel on how to reduce the deficit:
“I applaud the President for tapping Erskine Bowles to lead this bi-partisan effort. North Carolinians are still suffering from a sluggish economy brought on by years of misplaced priorities and mismanagement in Washington, DC. Erskine has a proven record of bi-partisan accomplishment, and I was proud to work with him to put the nation’s books in order when he previously served in the White House. Working together across party lines in the 1990s, we balanced the budget, produced record surpluses and broad-based economic prosperity. I look forward to working with him and his co-chairman, Republican Senator Alan Simpson to put discipline back into the budget and produce an economy that works for middle class working families.”
President Obama officially created an 18-member commission today to propose ways by Dec. 1, 2010, to reduce the national debt. The commission will recommend proposals that will balance the budget by fiscal year 2015 and will propose additional steps to improve the longer-term fiscal outlook.